Not for the first — or even the fifth — time are we left to wonder what's going on in the once wonderful world of golfer Michelle Wie.

Not just on the course, where her only consistency is her inconsistency, but off of it, too.

Greg Nared, her manager, resigned yesterday. If you're keeping score, that's two managers in two years as a professional. Both leaving soon after the Samsung World Championship.

And, no, Samsung is not Korean for scapegoat. But it sure looks like it could be. And not just for agents.

Of course, the revolving door is perpetually spinning around Wie. She's gone through as many caddies as sets of ear rings. Not even George Steinbrenner has run through personnel this fast.

But when your niche is being a phenom and, suddenly, you're at age 18 without a victory on the LPGA side or a cut made on the PGA end of it, there are a lot of questions being posed. When you're banking the big, guaranteed endorsement bucks and not making cuts, inquiring minds begin to wonder.

They wonder, for example, if the people atop Team Wie, the father and mother, have too tight a grip. Are they out of their depth on some elements of her career?

They did a remarkable, even masterful job getting her to where she was at age 16, positioning her for the lucrative contracts she was able to command. But things have gotten a whole lot more complex since then. And while it is natural and even admirable for parents to want a say in their daughter's career there is a point where suffocation can occur.

That's a natural presumption and growing perception with Wie since, time and again, the cast around her has changed. Either because they have thrown up their hands and left or because they were invited to. Yet, for all Wie's remarkable talents, her game is in a year-long rut. Her public image took a beating this year. Her crowd appeal is sliding.

Progress this isn't.

Nared came over from Nike to join Team Wie when her first manager from the William Morris Agency, Ross Berlin, resigned. If there was anybody who, it seemed, might be able to endure for the long haul with Team Wie, it was Nared. He'd been around the family from amateur days and was a familiar site out at Waialae Country Club following her from hole to hole.

Nared is a former college athlete, well connected and well thought of in the corporate world of sports where he had worked with Tiger Woods. Speculation has it Nared might have been the one that tipped her to the infamous "Rule 88" situation that led Wie to withdrawing from the Ginn Tribute before she lost her LPGA spot for the year.

If he is bailing out — and at first glance it sure looks that way — then you've got to question what is going on at Team Wie.

Not for the first time but maybe now more than ever.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.